Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our distinguished guests from Kenya, who are very welcome. I hope they have a successful visit to the House and to Ireland.

I welcome the Dublin city task force, which the Government made preliminary announcements about yesterday and today. I understand a substantial announcement is to be made on Thursday. However, there are serious questions about local government. A very successful Seanad committee is still working on the issue. The Leader is involved with that committee. People are asking what happened to the key recommendations from the citizens' assembly on Dublin.

We know that Ireland has the among the weakest local government in Europe, perhaps the second weakest local democracy in Europe. We know that citizens, and particularly the citizens of Dublin, are fed up with quangos, agencies, Departments and unelected officialdom with no accountability for local government. The House will later today pass a motion in respect of street furniture in our cities and towns. That is the sort of issue that can be dealt with at the local government level and should not be dealt with at the level of national government. An earlier speaker talked about what the Minister was doing but the Minister was doing nothing. The Minister was making a proposal which we will agree by way of a motion today. That is an important point. I will support the motion with the proviso that we look after disabled people who are navigating the streets of our cities and towns and who are having difficulty because some people are taking up space that is way beyond what is allotted to them. That is for another day.

I again call for greater devolved, and more, powers and resources for our Dublin city councillors and for the excellent Mr. Richard Shakespeare, who is the new Dublin chief executive. We want more gardaí on our streets and more community workers. We want an equal start for our children because the outcomes of not having an equal start are being seen on the streets of Dublin today. In general, I wish the task force well. Let us not devolve the powers from where they should be, that is, in the heart of Dublin City Hall with Dublin City Council, the executive and the executive management team. That is where we will address the problems of Dublin and the problems of local government in the city.